When you ask Handy (Handoff's AI assistant) for an estimate and you have created at least 3 estimates before, it first researches your past work. It looks at how you priced, grouped, and scoped similar jobs, then builds the new estimate to match. You can select Skip while research runs.

Research runs before Handy drafts a new estimate, and only when you have at least 3 estimates in your history. Handy skips it for your first and second estimate. It also skips research when it decides your past work isn't relevant.

Research has a limit of 5 minutes. While it runs, the progress box reads Researching... and then Research Complete.

Handy reads your earlier chats and the estimates and documents in your account. It compares what it finds with its general construction knowledge. It then picks one to three of your past estimates as references.

It favors estimates with real effort behind them: a sent proposal, an invoice, manual edits, or several rounds of AI changes. It only reads these estimates. It never changes them.

Handy tells you what it learned before it builds, for example that you usually use a 30% markup. It asks a question only when something might not apply to this job.

It then builds the estimate using those findings, so pricing, structure, and materials look like your earlier work. Your saved presets and catalogs still apply, and anything you type in the current chat wins over what research finds.

Handy then builds the estimate without the research findings. That is faster, but the result is more generic. Skipping suits a quick one-off job. Selecting stop instead of Skip cancels the estimate.

To turn research off, tell Handy in chat, for example "Do not research my patterns when creating estimates." Handy can save that as a preset.

Research doesn't save anything on its own. If it notices a pattern worth keeping, Handy suggests saving it, and it saves only after you confirm. See How Handy learns your preferences.